Jeff Beck Names New Band
PLUS reveals a bit more about new album
Jeff Beck has unveiled his new touring band that will be joining him on the road this year PLUS more info about his forthcoming solo album.
Jeff has shows lined up with Eric Clapton next month and then a huge world tour kicking off in March in support of his imminent new studio album Emotion & Commotion – his first since 2003 – and he’s named a band of stellar musicians to join him on his epic jaunt around the world.
Narada Michael Walden joins the band on drums. A multi- Grammy Award winning producer, drummer and singer-songwriter in his own right, Narada has collaborated with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Tom Jones. Narada also featured and composed four tracks on Beck’s classic 1976 album Wired and has been a long time friend of Jeff’s.
Rhonda Smith will play bass in the band and she has played with a whole host of artists such as Prince (playing to 1.4 million people on The Musicology Tour), Beyonce, Justin Timberlake and Little Richard to name a few.
And on keyboards will be Jason Rebello, the UK Jazz supremo who has worked with Jeff since 2006, has performed with Madeleine Peyroux, Chaka Khan and Sting.
Says Jeff of his new group "I am really thrilled to be working with Narada Michael Walden. When we last worked together we won a Grammy. Narada is an inspiration to me. Rhonda became known to me through conversations with Narada. Rhonda is an amazing bass player and has fitted in perfectly with the band Jason has been working with me since 2006 adds the final touch to outstanding line up.”
UK fans will be able to see the new band in action this October when the fifth leg of Jeff’s forthcoming new album tour lands in the country for a series of dates.
A few tickets are still available for some of the shows, so have a look at dates below and get yourself tickets from the link below that.
15 Oct BIC, Bournemouth
16 Oct Brighton Centre, Brighton
17 Oct Symphony Hall, Birmingham
20 Oct Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow
21 Oct Apollo, Manchester
22 Oct City Hall, Sheffield
24 Oct Colston Hall, Bristol
25 Oct St David’s Hall, Cardiff
26 Oct The Royal Albert Hall, London
Meanwhile, a few more details have emerged about Jeff’s new studio album.
Rolling Stone reports that Emotion & Commotion will be released in the US on 13 April (with a UK release likely on 12 April) and will feature a mixture of Beck originals and covers.
The album will apparently include renditions of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Corpus Christi Carol,’ The Wizard of Oz’s ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ ‘I Put a Spell On You,’ featuring Joss Stone on vocals.
Emotion also finds Beck teaming with a 64-piece orchestra for a handful of classical music tracks, like Gustav Mahler’s "Symphony No. 5,” the Atonement score’s "Elegy for Dunkirk” and Puccini’s "Nessun Dorma.”
"It turned out amazingly well, but I didn’t want to commit to an entire album of classical music,” Beck tells Rolling Stone. "What appealed to me instead was the idea of bringing together these seemingly contradictory sounds on different kinds of non-classical music.”
The album is produced by Steve Lipson and Trevor Horn.